Just Saying No

The widespread refusal of parents in one of Michigan's most affluent
districts to let their children take a new high school proficiency test
has thrown a wrench into the state's race toward tougher coursework and
statewide exams.

In the wake of the rebellion in this Detroit suburb, some
policymakers are rethinking the test. Others want to clamp down on the
waivers that let parents opt their 11th graders out of taking it.

Many Birmingham parents say they simply decided that the 11-hour
reading, writing, math, and science exam offered no rewards for their
college-bound children.

"The benefit didn't outweigh the potential for disaster," said Betsy
Hanna, whose daughter, Elizabeth, sat out the test. "We are like
tigresses. You touch our cubs, and we're onto you."

The irony of the situation here hasn't been lost on educators in
Michigan and elsewhere: Informed, upscale parents who would be expected
to most heartily welcome rigorous new assessments are the very ones
refusing to accept them.

As similar efforts to hold students and educators to stricter
standards gain steam nationwide, state and national leaders may find
valuable lessons in Michigan's dilemma. That includes President
Clinton, who is trying to build support for new national tests for 4th
and 8th graders.

"There is momentum now," said John F. Jennings, the co-director of
the Center for Education Policy, a research organization in Washington.
That means that instead of just talking about higher standards and
tougher assessments, policymakers are actually putting those tools into
use, Mr. Jennings said. "This is where people will face up to it or
blow it away."

New Test on the Block

Michigan lawmakers created the High School Proficiency Test in 1992
to mollify business leaders who complained that high school diplomas
were meaningless because graduates lacked basic skills.

The test, now in its second year, was given to juniors in February
and covers 10th grade skills. On each section, students receive a score
of proficient, novice, or not-yet-novice, and the results go on their
transcripts. Gold seals for proficient scores go on diplomas.

"These are not basic-skills tests. These are difficult," said Diane
Smolen, the supervisor of the Michigan Educational Assessment
Program.

Twenty-one states require students to pass a basic-skills test to
graduate. Michigan, New York, and Tennessee offer state-endorsed
diplomas for students who surpass a designated score. New York, Ohio,
and Tennessee also offer honors diplomas.

Although Michigan's proficiency test is not required for graduation,
it is forcing schools to align their curricula with the state's
voluntary standards.

"Expectations are being ratcheted up for students," said Jim
Ballard, the executive director of the Michigan Association of
Secondary School Principals. "We can't deny that this is doing what it
set out to do."

Of the 92,000 students who took the 1996 test, only 34 percent were
rated proficient in writing. The proportion deemed proficient in math
was 47 percent; in science, 32 percent; and in reading, 40 percent.

One of the state's top performers in the exam's first year was the
7,500-student Birmingham district. Nine out of 10 graduates from the
suburban Oakland County district go to college, and its students
averaged a 65 percent proficient rate on the four tests last year.

So it came as quite a shock when parents of two-thirds of the 500
juniors in the district's two high schools requested waivers to excuse
their children from February's test. Nearly 30 percent of the juniors
at nearby Troy High School also opted out.

Most of the waivers came in at the last minute, after a local
newspaper, The Eccentric, ran a story weighing the exam's pros
and cons.

"We had heard some rumors that something might happen," Birmingham
Superintendent John W. Hoeffler said. "Before you knew it, it was
done."

Concern Spreads

There was no apparent organized test boycott. But the spark, some
say, was students like Seaholm High School's Jonathan Salz.

He scored a perfect 36 on the ACT college-entrance exam and was
accepted to the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But when word spread that Mr. Salz received a "novice" score on last
year's writing proficiency test, his stumble alarmed parents. If it
happened to him, how were their children going to do? And concerns
arose over the test's credibility, especially the more subjective
writing portion.

"You're telling me that he can't write well enough to be employed at
a milling shop or as a keypunch operator, but he can write well enough
to get into MIT?" said Jonathan's father, Jeff Salz, a custom
cabinetmaker. "I don't think so."

Local parents insist that they support testing, but argue that this
is the wrong test. They outlined their concerns in a Feb. 11 letter to
the state schools chief, Arthur Ellis. Among their complaints were
that:

Students who earn the not-yet-novice score are unfairly punished
because private school students do not take the test.

Colleges and employers say they pay little attention to the
test.

The lengthy test "intrudes" on class time.

Some test material has not been covered in classes.

What Next?

"Most of our kids are going to college, so they're really not
concerned about what businesses are looking for," said Marnie Parrott,
the president of the Seaholm Parent-Teacher-Student Association, whose
daughter took the test.

But when many parents discovered that there was no record or
punishment for opting out, the decision was easy. Birmingham school
officials have asked the state for an immediate moratorium on the test
until its flaws can be worked out.

But that may be wishful thinking. Gov. John Engler and Mr. Ellis are
solidly behind the exam. "We are not going to back away from high
standards," Mr. Ellis said.

Mr. Ellis is reviewing administrative changes in response to the
parents. He said he will also lobby colleges and employers to take the
exam seriously.

But state lawmakers who thought they were giving voters what they
wanted with the tougher tests and curriculum are divided over its
future.

Rep. Kirk A. Profit, a Democrat, has introduced a bill that would
replace the state endorsement on diplomas with numerical scores on
transcripts. And Republican Sen. Dan L. DeGrow's school accountability
bill would raise pressure to take the test by counting waivers against
district scores. Districts that tested poorly could be taken over by
the state.

Cautionary Tale

Birmingham parents are surprised at the attention they've received,
including a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal on March
28.

But it's not often that parents who usually follow the rules are so
defiant. And the issue they picked--tougher standards and tests--is
front and center these days among state government and business
leaders.

People are also paying attention for the lesson to be learned:
Parents can't be excluded from the process when new educational tools
are in the works.

"The message of the Michigan story is, I don't believe that they did
the proper amount of groundwork that is necessary," said Christopher T.
Cross, the president of the Maryland board of education.

Mr. Ellis, the Michigan superintendent, concurs. "No one envisioned
this kind of turmoil."

Maryland is scheduled to launch in 1999 a battery of new proficiency
tests aligned with the state's mandatory standards. But the first two
years will be no-risk trial runs. No decision has been made on whether
passing the exam will become a requirement for graduation.

Mr. Cross noted that Maryland's universities, which helped draft the
state's standards, will use the exam as a criterion for admission. "By
tying this in to the university system, it has greater weight."

In the end, Mr. Jennings said, selling higher standards and the
tests that go with them will require an ongoing public relations
effort.

"You'd better talk to a lot of people about this," he said. "I'm
optimistic that if people in power keep talking and if schools change
to get kids ready, then it will work."

Assessment.
This section of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory's
"Pathways to School Improvement" Web site leads to several informative
and well-linked articles on assessment, as well as to other
resources.

The Use and
Misuse of Test Scores in Reform Debate. This 1994 RAND policy brief
points out that "over the last two decades, test scores have been
cited, variously, as sure and certain signs of U.S. educational decline
or as indicators that particular types of reform are 'working.'"

Read the 1994 Reading Report
Card. A status report from the National Assessment of Educational
Progress. Among its findings: The average reading proficiency of 12th
grade students declined significantly from 1992 to 1994.